PACER Plus deal could be extremely damaging to Pacific Islands economies Featured
Representatives who signed the PACER Plus trade agreement in Tonga. Photo: Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat
6 March, 2018. An analyst says New Zealand's planned trade deal with the Pacific Island nations could be extremely damaging to their economies.
New Zealand with Australia has been strongly promoting the PACER Plus trade over the past 10 years and later last year it got the required backing, though it is still to be ratified.
But Dr. Cleo Paskal of the global think tank Chatham House said there was very little in PACER Plus for the island nations.
She said Australia and New Zealand had bullied Pacific countries into a deal that offers very little and include no development for them.
"If you push through this deal you will end up not creating an integrated economic environment that ultimately revolves around Australia and New Zealand, you will end up with a fragmented Pacific economic area, which creates even more dislocation internally and potentially more inequalities and more abilities for outside actors to come in."
Dr. Cleo Paskal said the way PACER Plus has been approached shows a disconnect between the economic engagement in the Pacific and the political and strategic engagement.
-RNZI
1 comment
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FAKE NEWS...Dr. Cleo Paskal of Chatham House think tank would have us believe New Zealand and Australia are out to rob the Pacific Islands. Without proof, or examples, is Dr. Paskal the 21st Century Messiah coming to save the Pacific Islands from these 2 bad wolves?
Since when did NZ and Australia steal or rape the Pacific Islands of any treasures? On the contrary they have been spoon-feeding these Islands for years through their generous foreign aids, and offering opportunities to inflow migration from these islands? We wish, however, they would allow more inward migrants to relocate from the islands especially Australia who are very stingy about it.
New Zealand and Australia are the Pacific Islands' most generous donors to their economies, cultures, and social needs. What might they want tor rob these islands of when they are donating to their survival, and keep them afloat paternalistically?
Perhaps Dr. Paskal can enlighten us with examples and proof instead of throwing flamethrowers to scare Pacific Islanders of our most faithful benefactors for centuries.
Leaders of these Pacific Islands need to wake up and start figuring out how to be self-sufficient and stop expecting handouts from New Zealand and Australia every year.